Men’s Lacrosse from Japan #5 – Nagoya Castle from Alex Hopmann

The UMBC men’s lacrosse team is in Japan for the 20th annual International Friendship Games as part of an 11-day journey to Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. Some of the members of the squad will be sharing their experiences here at the Dawg Blog. Our fifth entry is from Alex Hopmann.

Hello All,

Like Tim, I am writing this entry from my second night of my home stay. I am staying with a girl’s lacrosse player named Mikki. It has been an interesting two days and I am happy that Tim allowed me to explain the Naoya Castle and Toyota Trip.

That morning started with a pleasant wakeup visit from Coach Zimmerman telling Mike Burch and me that we have to eat breakfast during the 8 a.m. shift, and that we need to have our tickets from the first flight at breakfast. Well since all of us are responsible and no one kept their flight information, that morning wasn’t very pleasant for the coaches. After the breakfast that consisted of rice, pasta, vegetables (I have never seen before and more rice), let’s just say we got on the bus very hungry.

On the way to Nagoya castle, Smitty gave me the great idea of using the center seat on our bus as a foot rest. As I was setting it up my finger got caught in some metal and cut my pinkie. It was a minor cut but started bleeding so I went to the front of the bus to get a band-aid. After I sat down and got the bleeding to stop, the next thing I remember is the whole bus standing over me with Benin Bembry smacking my face. It turns out that I fainted while sitting in my seat and my teammates now believe they saved my life because they thought I was dying. I would like to thank Smitty and Maxx for freaking out our terrified non-English speaking bus driver and making him stop the bus and Benin for smacking me back to my senses.

At the Castle we were able to walk around and basically do what we please. A lot of us went to the top of the castle and took pictures of the skyline and enjoyed the gift shop. The rubber nunchucks and wooden swords were a hit. Maxx is now a Samurai and Tim Eagan is the worst ninja in the world. He managed to break his chucks before we even left the castle. A big hit at the castle was the fried chicken on a stick because I am beginning to guess that rice and noodles is getting old.

The Toyota plant was next and that was cool and all but Tim Anderson’s dad works for Chevy so I won’t say anything more about Toyota tour. I will let Steve write that.